Device IOS Error when initializing...

A friend of mine has a Compaq Presario with Windows95. It worked fine until this morning when she turned it on and it wouldn't go past the following error message:
"While initializing device IOS: Error: An I/O sysbsystem driver failed to load. Either a file in the .\iosubsys subdirectory is corrupt, or the system is low on memory"
16Mb of RAM, 1Gb HD, 3.5"FD and a CD-ROM, soundcard and speakers.

Would appreciate an answer. Have had great success, and fantastic answers from Smeebud on other problems.
Thanks,
doberman
email: serenity@inlink.com

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I had already tried both of the comments you posted. It won't even let us into Windows95 in Safe Mode. We can only get to a C:\> prompt. Windows will not start under any circumstances.

She has a "restore" Windows95 CD, and it says if she uses it all her data files will be erased. She may have ver.A of Windows, do you think it would be possible to use a regular Win95 (ver.A) CD and perform a "reinstall"??? Of course, like most people she hasn't any backup of her data. I can find the files for QuikBooks and Quicken, and may be able to copy to floppy, but her files are soooo large it will take more than one floppy for each of her "backup" data files that are located on her harddrive.

Any other suggestions would be a help. We contacted Compaq and Quantum, and neither company had ever heard of this problem. Now I know I saw similar references to this error message on Microsoft's Support Site. Could it really be true these two companies have "gumballs" working for them. At least I know I can get an answer for something from Experts Exchange, even if it is something I've already tried. If one of you hasn't heard of the problem before you research it before you comment on something.

Hoping to hear from you with other possibilities.
doberman
serenity@inlink.com

Yes, I ran Scandisk from Dos. Didn't make any difference. I found some of her QuikBook data files lost in the system, and had it fix those. Nothing else out of whack. I have a disk called, "Troubleshooter". Let it boot to Troubleshooter and ran diagnostics, nothing failed, all tests passed. I thought maybe the motherboard was causing problems, or the harddrive, but Troubleshooter checked them out and they passed, including the CMOS and BIOS setups were ok when I looked at them.

Autoexec.bat does not exist.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Autoexec.dos has the following:
if exist c:\firstboo.txt goto exit
copy c:\windows\options\cabs
c:\windows\options\cabs\runsetup /IS /IW /IQ
:exit
----------------------------------------------------------------
Config.sys has the following:
c:\windows\command\cpqdrv\cpqidecd.sys /D:ided001
files=20
buffers=20
----------------------------------------------------------------
Config.dos has the following:
rem Microsoft OEM Preload config.sys
rem
rem Copyright (C) 1995 Microsoft Corporation
rem All rights reserved
rem it is up the the OEM user to supply a replacement for this config.sys
rem once they have completed the factory install portions of Windows setup
rem
rem This one overlays the initial config.sys in the root after the
rem factory preconfigurations completed

[common]
files=20
buffers=40
device=c:\windows\himem.sys /testmem:off
dos=high,umb
shell=c:\windows\command.com c:\windows /P
----------------------------------------------------------------
She said all was working until she turned on the system Wed.(4/8/98) morning.

To: magigraf
Tried what you recommended for Config.sys and Autoexec.bat. Still got the same Error message when it tried to start Windows.

Looked and the windows directory and the majority of her dates are 1995 (8/20/95, 7/11/95, etc.) Just a couple 1996 dates, and whatever else they put in themselves.

She said her husband had been on the system the night before, teaching himself Windows 95 with a workbook he had. He told her he couldn't remember exactly what files he moved around, but he was practicing "drag and drop". She wonders if he may have moved these important files and now nobody knows where they are. He did say he also did "drag and drop" to the recycle bin. OOOOOHHHHH!!!!! Sometimes people are "scarey" when it comes to their computers...

1) If the installation disks for windows95 are on floppies or CD-Rom version??
2) If they are on CD-Rom (proceed with step 3...)
3) We need to find out the command line entry for her CD-Rom in the autoexec.bat
--Without that line entry we cannot make the CD-Rom drive available in DOS to run that corrective install I want.

I know that compaq leaves the drivers on the hard drive, could you try to locate them??
Or try to locate an old copy of autoexec.bat and copy that line.

it should look something like that: (not exactly since her's another make of Cd-Rom drive)

C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND\MSCDEX.EXE /D:MSCD001 /M:8 /V
** just to get the idea O.K.??

Search for all autoexec files by typing the following at a Dos prompt.

Lynne received the disks from Compaq today, all those that didn't come with the system when she purchased it. I installed the drivers for the CD-ROM and then used a Windows 95 ver.A CD to reinstall the appropriate necessary files to get windows started. I finally got into Windows and the first place we looked was the Recycle Bin to see if her husband had put anything in. Sure enough, ALL the Windows System and IOSystem files were in the recycle bin. Autoexec.bat and Config.sys as well.

She told her husband she was "burning" the book he was using to teach himself Windows 95. In his practicing "drag and drop" he DID put all the system info into the Recycle Bin. I mentioned that possibility briefly in one of my comments, but really didn't think someone would do that.

I hope this hasn't been too much of a headache for you all. Once again, thank you for all the suggestions, it's nice to have "more than one head" thinking on the problem.

Found this problem not necessarily exclusive to particular machine or software, but usually occurrs upon reboot from new software or hardware installation. MS indicates this is a problem with Win/95 Rel 1, 2,and 2.1. MS says if IE 4.0 is installed problem does not occurr. I had to rename RMM.PDR to RMM.OLD in the windows\system\iosubsys directory and OS booted OK but did not " re-create " the file as I expected. I did find several prople who had the problem were using Toshiba Tecra 5XX model laptops. THe software my customer was installing was a "Travelers Insurance" company provided analytical software package.

This problem has occurred on several Toshiba laptops that were in the Docked mode. The latest incident occurred when the user installed Visual Basic 4.0. Undocking the laptop, booting in safe mode, removing the floppy drive controller and the PC card devices,and reinstalling IE 4.0 seemed to work.

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